I have been asked twice recently to move the lower case "c" up to line up with the other letters or above them – regarding the name McNeil or McDonald, etc…
I do not recall seeing this done in most situations.
Do you know why it would be necessary?
Best Answer
I believe this is because the name element (now) usually expressed "Mc" is actually an abbreviation for "Mac"; at one time, superscript (often with an underline or under dots) was a common way of writing abbreviations without resort to an apostrophe. This is preserved in the symbol № for "number".
You can see an example of this in the signature on the letter below, abbreviating "Nathaniel" (from Wikimedia Commons):
Writing Mc as MC therefore preserves the original, "true" form of the name in a way that Mc does not (as it does not indicate the abbreviation).
There is also a discussion here about the aesthetic and legibility benefits of the superscript c, for more formal type-setting.